FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) 141N potentially handing over between two basic service sets (BSSs), BSS1 121 and BSS2 122, in a wireless local area network (WLAN). Originally, BSS1 121 has an access point (AP) 101 and a plurality of WTRUs 1411 to 141N and BSS2 122 has an access point (AP) 102 and a plurality of WTRUs 1421 to 1423. The WTRU 141N is in wireless communication with AP 101. As illustrated in FIG. 1, both APs 102, 101 are connected to a distribution system 16. To decide whether to handover between BSSs 12, such as BSS1 121 and BSS2 122, the WTRU 141N measures the received signal strength (RSS) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) for each BSS 121, 122. The BSS 12 having the better RSS or SNR is selected for further communication. If BSS1 121 is selected, the current communication links are maintained, as illustrated as a solid line. If BSS2 122 is selected, a new link is established with BSS2, as illustrated as a dashed line.
Although this approach most likely provides the WTRU 141N with the strongest link, other criteria may make such a connection undesirable. To illustrate, the BSS having the strongest link may be overloaded and can not meet some quality of service (QoS) requirements of the WTRU 141N. Accordingly, it is desirable to have alternate handover schemes.